Probably you have mentioned that terms "cristaten" and "monstrosa" - the forms of cactuses - are frequently used in publications. As for colored forms it is more complicated. They are called colored, low-chlorophyll, motley, cultivars, variegated and so on. In the USSR it was customary to call all the colored forms of cactuses low-chlorophyll (spelled with one "l"). According to the research of colored forms of Gymnocalycium made in 2000 by I.Skoulkin, Ph.D., "it is not correct to call low-chlorophyll most of colored forms, because there is chlorophyll in them though its quantity is not significant as a rule, but sometimes it is higher than in the initial plant Gymnocalycium mihanovichii var. friedrichii".

This conclusion is the result of thorough lab tests. Probably according to the presence of chlorophyll Mr. Skoulkin would divide all the colored forms into 3 groups as a minimum: chlorophyll-free, low- chlorophyll and chlorophyll.

picture 2.

Meanwhile there should exist universal terms that could define a group of plants without additional explanations and research. The name COLORED FORMS OF CACTUSES is general. I suggest leaving the classification based on the presence of chlorophyll to the experts. An amateur does not have such possibilities. For him/her the only criteria is the coloring of epidermis. According to this characteristic all the colored forms can be divided only into 2 groups: one/bi-colored and multi-colored or with motley stem.

Why one/two-color and not one-color and bi-colored? It is because very often one-color plants or their shoots turn to bi-colored without any apparent reasons. By the way some cristaten and monstrosa forms can be one/bi-colored too.

picture 3.

It is necessary to define which cactuses should be referred to this or that group. That means to define the percentage of the visible colored part to the green.

On present showing the plants whose surface is green 40% or more can grow on their own roots. Keeping this fact in mind one can refer plants with colored part covering up to 60% of the surface to the cactuses with motley stem. (picture )It is quite probable that this group of plants exists in the wild nature or can appear there.

All the other cactuses will refer to the group of one/bi-colored (picture 2). Instead of the term "one/bi-colored" one can use the term "one-color" or "equally colored" though they are rather relative too. As I have already mentioned one-color plants can give bi-colored shoots or they themselves are not really one-color or equally colored or, for instance, red-yellow.

One can consider the possibility of assigning double figures to the colors of epidermis as it is customary with gladioluses. The first figure refers to the main color, the second to the shade. For example, 99 signifies a brown flower of the darkest shade.For cactuses one can use not double, but three- or four-figures as main colors are not numerous:

Probably someone will suggest leaving term chlorophyll free or low chlorophyll as relative. Any way red-orange, yellow-goldish, white and black-brown (dark violet) plants are likely to refer to this group. This is for you to accept such names or not. Let us discuss the question.

1. Red. 2. Crimson. 3. Pink. 4. Yellow. 5. Orange. 6. Dark violet. 7. Brown. 8. White. 9. Green.

Translation Irina Koudina, Mosnow, Russia, e-mail: irink@os2.ru

Walery Kalishev, Chelyabinsk, Russia, mailto: e-mail